नंदन नीलेकणि Nandan Nilekani

Life and career

  1. 1955 · Born in Bangalore. Born on 2 June 1955 in Bangalore. His father Mohan Rao Nilekani was a general manager at Mysore and Minerva Mills. He went to Bishop Cotton Boys’ School and then to school and college in Dharwad. His first language is Konkani. (Wikipedia: Nandan Nilekani)
  2. 1973 · IIT Bombay. He joined IIT Bombay in 1973 to study electrical engineering. He met Rohini Soman at a quizzing event there. In 1978 he joined Patni Computer Systems in Mumbai. (Business Today: Nilekani donates Rs 315 crore to alma mater IIT Bombay (20 June 2023) · Wikipedia: Nandan Nilekani)
  3. 1981 · Infosys. He left Patni with N. R. Narayana Murthy and five others to found Infosys. He married Rohini the same year. At Infosys he served as managing director, president and chief operating officer. (Wikipedia: Nandan Nilekani)
  4. 2002 · Chief executive. He became CEO in March 2002. In five years revenue grew sixfold to $3 billion. He received the Padma Bhushan in 2006. In April 2007 he handed over to Kris Gopalakrishnan and became co-chairman. (Wikipedia: Nandan Nilekani)
  5. 2009 · Imagining India and UIDAI. Imagining India came out early in 2009. He spoke at TED and on The Daily Show. In July Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asked him to chair the new Unique Identification Authority of India. He left Infosys for the cabinet-rank post. (Wikipedia: Nandan Nilekani · TED: Nandan Nilekani’s ideas for India’s future (TED2009) · Publishers Weekly: Review of Imagining India (19 January 2009))
  6. 2014 · Politics. He joined the Congress in March and resigned from UIDAI on 13 March. He contested Bangalore South and lost to Ananth Kumar of the BJP by 228,575 votes. He conceded and said he would continue social work. (Business Standard: Nilekani resigns as UIDAI chairman (13 March 2014) · Wikipedia: Nandan Nilekani · Business Standard: Nilekani concedes defeat, says will continue social work (16 May 2014))
  7. 2015 · EkStep and Rebooting India. EkStep Foundation was incorporated in February with Rohini Nilekani and Shankar Maruwada. It aimed to reach 200 million children. In November he and Viral Shah published Rebooting India. (EkStep Foundation: Origin story · Penguin India: Rebooting India)
  8. 2017 · Back to Infosys. After Vishal Sikka left as CEO he returned as non-executive chairman on 24 August. The move followed a public feud between the board and the founders. He and Rohini signed the Giving Pledge. He won the Nikkei Asia Prize. (Business Today: Nilekani makes comeback at Infosys as chairman (24 August 2017) · CNBC: Infosys names former chief Nilekani as chairman (24 August 2017) · Wikipedia: Nandan Nilekani)
  9. 2018 · The Supreme Court on Aadhaar. On 26 September a five-judge bench upheld Aadhaar but struck down Section 57. Private firms could no longer insist on it. He called it a landmark judgement in favour of Aadhaar. (ThePrint: Aadhaar has undergone the ultimate scrutiny, says Nilekani (26 September 2018) · BloombergQuint: After the Aadhaar judgment the starvation death debate is far from resolved (2018))
  10. 2019 · Digital payments committee. His RBI committee on deepening digital payments reported on 17 May. It set a three-year goal of ten times more digital transactions per person. In July he called his election run a big mistake. (PRS Legislative Research: Committee on Deepening of Digital Payments (2019) · Lokmat Times: Contesting elections was big mistake, says Nilekani (27 July 2019))
  11. 2022 · The Art of Bitfulness. He and Tanuj Bhojwani published The Art of Bitfulness on living calmly with devices. The same year EkStep funded the Nilekani Centre at AI4Bharat in IIT Madras for Indian-language AI. (Business Standard: Srivatsa Krishna reviews The Art of Bitfulness (18 January 2022) · Business Standard: Nilekani commits second multi-year grant to AI4Bharat (6 June 2025))
  12. 2023 · ₹315 crore to IIT Bombay. In June he gave ₹315 crore to IIT Bombay to mark 50 years since he joined. His total support to the institute reached ₹400 crore. (Business Today: Nilekani donates Rs 315 crore to alma mater IIT Bombay (20 June 2023))
  13. 2024 · The Finternet and Beckn. In April he and BIS chief Agustín Carstens proposed the Finternet. In October he gave the keynote at Beckn Node Zero in Bengaluru. He linked Beckn and the Finternet to climate action. (YourStory: Nilekani releases paper proposing Finternet (April 2024) · BIS: The Finternet, a giant leap for the financial system (18 April 2024) · CXOToday: Beckn and Finternet together for global climate impact (26 October 2024))
  14. 2026 · AI summit and exam reform. In February he shared a stage with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei at the India AI Impact Summit. At the Infosys AGM in June he said AI will amplify firms like Infosys. On 26 July Narendra Modi named him to lead a task force on exam reform after the NEET leak. (DQ India: Nilekani and Amodei on India as the use case capital of the world (19 February 2026) · Free Press Journal: Nilekani says AI will amplify Infosys, not replace it (24 June 2026) · Khaleej Times: Modi announces task force for exam reforms led by Nilekani (26 July 2026))

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